Tom Szaky’s company, TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net/> , collects post-consumer waste, such as Carpi Sun pouches and Oreo cookie wrappers, and turns them into entirely new products such as backpacks and pencil cases.  While Szaky’s “upcycling” business has an authentic environmental aura, it’s his partnerships with big companies like Kraft and Nabisco that make the business work.  Those large packaged goods companies sponsor the collection brigades that provide TerraCycle with used packaging. It’s an unlikely alliance, but one that gives the big companies a “green” image, while providing TerraCycle with low cost or free raw materials.